Review: An Academy for Liars

4/5 stars

An Academy for Liars, by Alexis Henderson (2024)

A hidden school of magic in the heart of Savannah, GA, complete with lots of beautiful, atmospheric hanging moss and lots and lots of secrets.

Protagonist Lennon has just run away from an ill-advised engagement, after having found her fiancé with another woman at their engagement party. She takes his car and hits the road, without any more direction than "away from here." When she pulls off the road, she gets a very mysterious phone call at a phone booth; the voice on the other end informs her application to Drayton School has been accepted, and she should come right away. Despite having never heard of the school, and definitely never having applied, she figures - why not.

Turns out Drayton is a school of magic - specifically, a school that teaches those with a proclivity for it the art of persuasion. She and her fellow students learn to use their will to control others. She is assigned an advisor, Dante, who apparently only works with exceptional students, though she can't figure out why. But as her abilities grow, she starts to learn more and more about the magic, about her mentor and the other professors, and about the founding of Drayton itself. And what she finds - and what she does with that information - may serve to unmake the tidy little hidden school entirely.

My biggest complaint is that the word "ineffable" was used way too often.

Dark academia is usually a home run for me, and this was no exception. If you like that sort of thing, I would also recommend Leigh Bardugo's Ninth House, and Lev Grossmans' Magicians series.

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UP NEXT: A Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping, by Sangu Mandanna